


Naruto: Spacing Out

by Valentine20xx



Category: Naruto, The Last Starfighter (1984)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20350519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentine20xx/pseuds/Valentine20xx
Summary: In a distant galaxy, Naruto Uzumaki is about to attempt to become part of the Planetary Defence Squad of Konoha, as the captain of the Kyuubi, one of the most powerful craft in the known universe. He just needs to persuade people that the attack by the Kyuubi years ago was not it's fault. No trouble, right?





	1. The Ultimate Gunner

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto. Elements from 'The Last Starfighter' © Universal Pictures. None are used with permission.
> 
> This is based on the 10th and 39th entry in Silent Magi's Randomness series, and portray a Naruto universe in a science fiction setting, where aptitude in jutsu and certain bloodlines are remade as weapons systems on their craft.
> 
> The main reference to the Last Starfighter is the way the Kyuubi targets things, allowing for a more practical Death Blossom AOE attack, which is Hinata's anime-only vacuum blade ability realised in spatial combat.  
In real terms, it doesn't use hugely powerful shots, but the sheer amount of them and the precise targetting used on them… means they don't need to be.

_ The Bijuu-class Battlecraft are known throughout the known galaxy as the most powerful non-capital ship craft, being comparable in size to most field command vessels, yet only needing a crew complement of three to four. _

_ It is unknown where exactly the Bijuu-class come from, being the oldest known craft within the galaxy, being suspected to be the support vessels for the mysterious ‘World Destroyer’, the Datara, a almost-mythical capital-class ship. _

_ Instead of being built using standard metallurgy, they appear to be built in what seems to be an almost organic manner around a gyro-stabilized ball, it being nicknamed the Bijuu Ball, which acted as both the ship’s cockpit and its escape pod, keeping its small crew safe when the outer vessel was being destroyed. _

_ The way that their outer hull was grown, rather than built in a conventional manner, meant that they had the unusual ability to reconfigure for any purpose, as well as almost instantly repair any damage. It's weapons capability was limited by the pilot's imagination, being able to fabricate anything that they could think of. _

_ This versatility became quite a problem for Konoha Planetary Defence when the Kyuubi, the on-station Bijuu-Class ship, suddenly started to refuse its pilot’s commands and attempted to fabricate and drop an Armageddon-class device on Konoha's central colony planet, with the ship’s pilot desperately trying to override the hidden commands, presumed to be a directive coming straight from the Datara itself. _

_ Konoha's planetary governor and the head of the KPD, Minato Namikaze, finally managed to wrestle control of the Kyuubi back and canceled the command, with him having to separate the Kyuubi’s cockpit from the rest of the ship, as a side effect of this emergency override. _

_ However, a mystery craft had then shown up; it taking full advantage of the chaos which had been caused to attack the Kyuubi's cockpit, dealing it a crippling blow. It was suspected that the same craft had also sent on the original signal which had overriden the Kyuubi’s manual control functions, but given it had appeared so suddenly and vanished just as fast, once its attack on the cockpit was completed; nothing could ever be proven with absolute certainty. _

_ The only person who was found alive inside the Kyuubi, when the rescue ships arrived, was a single baby; the son of its pilot, Kushina Uzumaki. The Kyuubi was not able to be operated by anyone other than him; thanks to all of the biometric security systems having been locked to his own lifesigns by the very last of Kushina’s remaining strength. _

_ However, wild suspicions were thrown about what had happened, with matters not helped by the near total security blackout on all of the events that’d taken place during the attack, and a separate incident within the Hyuuga consortium causing the loss of the telemetry data from several weeks before and after the day in question, when it was chosen quite by accident to be used as supposedly current telemetry data for the Konoha System's planetary defence net, which was claimed for a fake investigation. _

None of what had happened over a decade ago really mattered to Naruto though, as he was sitting aboard the Kyuubi, playing a game of Pong with the ship’s AI, Kurama, while waiting for his slot to be announced. He’d arrived well ahead of when he was scheduled to use the simulators, only to find himself still waiting for his landing slot to be announced.

He was losing valuable time before his certification test was due to start. But Naruto couldn't help this situation, since most of the methods he knew to try and hurry along the inexorably slow ATC room, which had so far let several other ships through; were either not applicable to his current situation; or he’d get into major trouble for using them without a good reason...

Naruto ignored the fact that his place in the queue had been skipped over several times by the controllers on duty, despite the fact that some of those other ships had arrived after his own and should have been told to wait their turn. He was well used to this treatment by now.

Admittedly, it was during one of these delay periods that he had fabricated the KS-1 Kitchen Sink Dumbfire Bomb, after remembering a stray comment made on the radio about throwing everything at them except the kitchen sink, and he had mused about why they had to stop there. It was basically a sink with an unstable highly explosive substance placed inside of it, which the Kyuubi assured him could easily be found within any kitchen sink, if certain people were trying to actually use a kitchen for cooking certain dishes.

Naruto didn't ask why, only knowing that the damn thing blew up rather spectacularly when its integrity failed; something which could happen at any time, ranging from just 30 seconds, starting from when the sealed sink was launched, to a whole five minutes. A few of the less skilled cooks in Konohagakure had actually wondered why Naruto actually  _ collected  _ some of their more caustic kitchen accidents after that.

Naruto looked down at the planet below him, circled by the various facilities that were the orbital command platforms of the KPD. He was soon going to be part of the Konohagakure Planetary Defence Squad... at least if he’d actually managed to pass the certification test.

He looked at the two empty crew spots in the heavily shielded cockpit bubble of the Kyuubi. The ship itself was built around this central piece, the cockpit design known as the Bijuu Ball. Due to this feature, a Bijuu-class ship, of which there were only nine known; could actually spin the outer craft, doing so without the crew feeling any movement at all and successfully bring all of its main guns to bear on their pursuer, quickly turning the hunter into the hunted.

The most lethal version of that move was called the Death Blossom, as the outer hull would spin and roll, practically uncontrollable, while firing all of its weapons until the ship’s batteries went dry. According to Kurama, the ship's computer, the only reason that the Death Blossom was a last-ditch suicide attack was that there was not a tactical support unit installed, which could actually help to  _ aim _ the weapons accurately during such a crazy maneuver.

Naruto didn't plan on installing one in the small lozenge-shaped pod located behind the crew compartment, since, so far, all the members that he'd met of the Hyuuga clan; who were the genetically engineered crew members who had been made for this job, all seemed to either have an ego that was the size of a capital ship, or their general personality was drier than a desert planet. Neither option really felt like they’d be a good match with him...

The other major crew position which wasn’t filled yet was that of the co-pilot and, ostensibly, gunner. However, thanks to what had happened before he had inherited the Kyuubi, Fleet Command had locked down most of that functionality, a situation which left him with just the standard issue ordinance and whatever prank weapons he could dream up. Ergo, the KS-1 was created, mainly due to the sheer shock value of a highly explosive sink being launched at an enemy vessel.

Naruto paused his game, as he heard what had sounded like a brief fight breaking out inside of the command tower over the radio channel for a few moments, before a slightly pained sounding officer notified him that his authorization to enter had finally been processed and that they would also be rotating out the staff, due to a minor accident in the tower.

As he passed by the room, he noticed 'Old Man' Sarutobi, the planetary governor, watching his personal guard escort all the original staff of the command tower out, as a new group of control room staff quickly moved to take their place, with the old ones unlikely to return any time soon. "Let me guess, Old Man..." Naruto asked, speaking over his communicator, on a private channel. "The fact that I was stuck ship watching, instead of being allowed to come inside right away, is why they are all going planetside for a few weeks for some retraining..."

"Very much so, Naruto..." Sarutobi replied on the same channel, "They need to be reminded that any craft belonging to the Planetary Defence Corps should be given priority over other space traffic at all times, not just when a third of it is on fire and the pilot is required to eject. Even the most insubordinate of the control room staff should know that, if there's a very high chance a ship’s crew will die if they don't get inside  _ NOW _ , they are supposed to be allowed to get inside as soon as possible… Admittedly, they do have problems with the definition of 'a third' sometimes with Bijuu-class vessels..."

When he’d finally arrived in his assigned hangar, Naruto now watched in silence as the outer shell of the Kyuubi dismantled itself, turning into a medium-sized carry-case, as the Bijuu ball folded up in a similar way, compacting into the handle for the case, before he headed to the simulator deck.

That was part of the secret of the Bijuu-class ships: there was not very often an actual ship left lying around in a hanger to be examined and reversed-engineered by other people (both friend and foe alike), with the entire thing compacting down into something that was portable enough for a single person to carry it around like a suitcase, using something that roughly resembled nano-technology. All Naruto knew for sure was that, when it expanded out again, everything was as it was beforehand.

Naruto also knew that he had to turn in a better score than the past eight times that he had gone for this exam, or run the risk of getting cast out of the Planetary Defence Corps entirely. Once he got to the proper deck, he waited in the observation area, knowing that they would not let him in without explicit authorization. And he didn't even need to look too closely at the noticeboard to realize that, even with him having submitted the request to sit his test at the very beginning of the day, he’d been placed at the very bottom of the list as the last person to be tested, before the simulators would be shut down for the night.

He looked towards Sakura, the girl whom he had once hoped to be his girlfriend, only for the discovery that one of her personalities seemed to loathe his existence with a passion placing that particular dream into an almost permanent cryo-stasis. 

Sakura was part of a human-like race that could both compartmentalise and split their mind into various sub-personalities. This mental quirk made her race a godsend when it came to tactical planning, with them being one of the very few races that could do extremely complex calculations, like 'hot' jump coordinates while in the middle of a very heated battle; outside of those who were genetically engineered for things like that.

She had scored consistently highly in all of her simulator runs to date, but Naruto also knew that her race had a real problem with their individual personalities shifting about on a dime, so while she would certainly make a good co-pilot; it’d only be true at certain times, without there being any predictable pattern to predict these shifts. He then thought about another member of her race, one who had their mind sub-divided into four.

The last he had heard of them, they were working with the colony security corps, being fitted with some bionic arms to allow themselves to do four things at once; and were only ever let out if it was  _ really  _ essential, because they were constantly rambling about conspiracies, with at least one of their personalities being considered insane as a result of this.

He sighed heavily, glancing through the simulator runs; only to find that Tenten, a member of Gai's squadron from the previous training cycle, was about to do one. He then noticed a light flashing on the case beside him and quickly opened up an encrypted channel to Kurama on his comm. " _ Hmm... I want you to suggest something to instructor Umino, since I do still need a gunner...  _ " Kurama offered, indicating for him to look towards Iruka, "  _ Plug my case into the simulator, so I can upload my specifications to the simulator, as well as some things for her to fight..." _

"Hey Iruka-sensei, could you quickly reset Tenten's current simulator run? She's already in an assigned team, so it won’t really affect anything if you do this for me..." Naruto called out to Iruka, one of the few people who had treated him without any form of basis. His instructor listened to the request and nodded his head, before he quickly connected the Kyuubi’s case up to the simulator, this action now effectively putting Kurama’s AI into the computer system, calling someone over for him to help shut off, on the simulated Kyuubi at least, the lock-out.

They then set a modifier on the simulator, Naruto looking puzzled, as he noticed a list come up of the weapons known to Fleet Command, with several of the lower power ones already having been ticked off, as a particular type of certification began… The ultimate certification for any gunner position.

"Authorization to disable lockout…" Iruka stated, looking towards the other instructor on duty, and they both entered their unique ID codes, as the computer scanned their eyes, before the words: ' _ This lockout is only removed for simulation purposes only. Full removal requires the authorization of the Hokage!'  _ appeared on their screens. Naruto then realised what exactly Kurama had wanted to test here. Tenten would be running with the Kyuubi at full power, with all of its weapons...

/*/

Tenten looked puzzled, when she was abruptly brought back to base in the simulation, only for her to be assigned a new craft. Her surprise only grew, as she was skimming through her new weapon loadout. What kind of ship on the fleet registry had everything, which  _ included  _ a kitchen sink of all things, complete with a very plausible way for the sink to be weaponized?!

She then noticed that she was sitting in a floating ball-shaped cockpit. This was a Bijuu-class vessel! She’d been put in a simulation run that used the single most infamous ship class in the fleet, one that she’d never get the chance to pilot normally.

"You will be flying a simulated attack run against the  _ Datara _ . You are required to evacuate a captive member of personnel, who is located here. You will be graded on the time before you are destroyed by the ship. You will also be graded on every weapon that you use during this sortie," the commander explained. Tenten just smirked at this last statement.

They were certifying her, using a simulation of a Bijuu, on the much delayed test of just what ship weapons she could use properly. And what else would you be allowed to use this much firepower on, except for the dreaded capital ship Datara, a vessel which was supposedly the fleet battleship which was rumoured to be in command of all the Bijuu-class ships?!

"Hmm… What's this function?" Tenten mused, as she noticed the fact it could remain locked onto a target even without line-of-sight, the system simulating an S-Rank tactical unit for this purpose. She then got a notification from the tactical unit that a hatch was after opening on the Datara. That hatch was permanently closed a fraction of a second later, while the hull of her own ship shifted about, hiding the fact there had ever been a weapons hardpoint there.

Tenten took out a pad, crossing something off, before she heard a brief pinging sound, and continued down the list, observing that none of her ship’s weapons seemed to deploy in a conventional sense, a gap just appearing in the hull where the turret or hardpoint appeared out of; with there being no, at least in the strictest sense, visible weapons ports on this ship.

As soon as she passed by the location marked on her display, recovering whoever the white haired woman was, Tenten then looked at her mission requirements as she heard another ping... ' _ Mission Success: Survive OR Datara has been rendered safe. Mission Failure: Ship is destroyed or loss of recovered personnel.' _

"Okay then! So, they want it to be rendered safe, do they…? It doesn’t say ‘intact’..." Tenten spoke aloud, grinning widely, as several parts of the craft opened up, ready to spew massive amount of simulated death upon her target. She had so many weapons left on the list to try out, and a **_wide_** target selection…

/*/

Iruka and Mizuki looked on in shared horror, as they watched the simulation of the Datara, a ship which was widely considered to be the scourge of the galaxy; be utterly destroyed in ten minutes flat, as Tenten used everything, including a welded shut kitchen sink full of what they both really hoped was just plasma being dropped right into the Datara’s engines, it causing a negative reaction within them.

When Tenten left the simulation, all of the observing officers were looking even more terrified than they had been before, since they actually knew that she'd been piloting a simulation of the Kyuubi… And had quite clearly proven that, if she  _ was  _ the tactical officer on it, that ship would be able to defeat  _ anything in the galaxy. PERIOD. _

"While I do have to say that her performance certainly does prove that she is one of the few people who, with the right tactical backup, could be a good fit for the Kyuubi; she is unlikely to be assigned as your tactical officer in the near future, because she would be practically devastating to anything she’d face off against..." Iruka whispered softly, as he disconnected Kurama’s AI from the simulator, before stating in a more normal tone of voice, "I didn't think you could use weapons in those configurations… and what's with the kitchen sink exactly?!"

"The KS-1 Kitchen Sink Dumbfire Bomb… You put a classified substance into it, weld it shut and wait for the contents to cause a dangerous reaction," Naruto replied, as he handed over the plans he'd made for it. Looking over these blueprints, Iruka went pale. Naruto was using the toxic substances created when people went into the mess halls with a severe inability to make food to create unstable ordinance? And, at least in simulated combat, it’d worked?!

' _ Kurama, Why exactly did you make it a rescue run?'  _ Naruto asked the AI curiously.

_ 'The… tactical unit in the Datara, Kaguya Otsutsuki… I wanted to test if there was a way to viably remove her from the Datara,'  _ The Kyuubi explained, '  _ Tenten might have done more than simply prove that she is now the new most dangerous thing in the galaxy... I may have found a way to save ALL the Bijuu from Datara’s influence...' _

Naruto’s eyes went wide. Kurama hadn’t just set up a test of how effective the Kyuubi could be in combat, it had tested the viability of an insane plan, one that was designed to cripple its capital ship and remove its influence over them…

“_As an example of this issue, Kaguya is, from what I know of her, unable to count past nine, _” Kurama continued talking, “ _All data sent to her cuts off after it’s counted up to 9. _**_All_** _data…”_

Naruto went pale at this. He could imagine an overly simplified tactical map, with the enemy forces rounded down to just nine vessels and no capability to accurately count the number of crew members aboard all of these ships. He’d heard stories of a similar configuration error in some sensors once, which had happened with an Uchiha bio-computer. They’d wiped out an entire colonization ship, due to them considering the target an ‘acceptable loss’; resulting in the deaths of well over a million people, due to thinking that the ship in question only had a hundred souls on board.

It was incidents like that which were why Konoha and some of its allies used bio-computers derived from Hyuuga genetics, because most Uchiha had been considered to be a little too callous over what would be acceptable losses in combat, glitches like that going unpatched.

Naruto did have to admit that Sasuke Uchiha, the top trainee of his current class, was super good when it came to space combat; but he’d seen that there was a note made on Sasuke’s personal report, one which noted that he’d consistently had some issues with both disabling his IFF transponder and using full power shots in simple training runs. Which were two of the reasons that Naruto didn’t want Sasuke flying around in Kyuubi.

/*/

When Tenten approached the instructors, to get her debriefing, Iruka took her aside for a few moments. "We’d loaded some classified ship data in as your simulated craft, in order to test out the fact that you seemed to be highly capable with most known weapons loadouts," Iruka spoke with a hint of pride in his voice, "You have showed that we need to amend that fact..."

He then pinned a badge to her tunic, one which had the image of a set of crossed lasers with a starburst behind them engraved upon it, only a few people knowing that it was likely a star detonating. This was a badge that indicated that, if she was assigned as the weapons officer on any craft in the known galaxy, she would be certified to use every weapon in its loadout.

However, while she was certified to use them, she would still need permission to do and that permission would have to be given by her commanding officer. Still, anyone who had earned this badge was now considered to be on the fast track to a gunship or gunnery position on a larger craft, since they knew  _ all  _ weapons. "You are now fully certified to operate any weapon which is rated up to and including apocalypse-grade capital ship weaponry... Oh yes, and the kitchen sink," Iruka stated, "May the Kamis have mercy on anything that you get a lock onto!"

When Gai came to meet her a short time later, intending to congratulate her on her success, he saw her new badge and briefly froze. She’d actually passed certification on  _ everything? _

"Naruto decided to upgrade her certification test, thus allowing her to use a simulation of the unmodified Kurama. She passed it, with flying colors," Naruto overheard Iruka state to Gai. "I also wish to add that she now has a slight amendment on her certification, in that, in her test, she’d successfully used everything, including a kitchen sink, as a valid piece of ordinance!"

"You mean to say that she's certified to-," Gai asked, both of his eyes widening in surprise.

"To hit the enemy with everything which she has access to, including the kitchen sink," Iruka nodded his head in reply. Several months later, Konoha’s testing authority added the KS-1 to their list of weapons that they tested candidates on, with them putting this under the category of 'Abnormal ordinance’ (unguided, not a mandatory part of required test criteria) and a note next to the listing which read:  _ Yes, We even have a kitchen sink on here. So? It's for when you hit them with everything including the kitchen sink!  _ '

  
  



	2. Team 7

Once Naruto had gone back to watching, and waiting for his slot to come up, Naruto reconnected with Kurama.

" _ I understand why Iruka forbade us from meeting again... _ " Kurama mused in his head, " _ I didn't modify the weapons loadout or what I know of the Datara's tactical capability. All she did was look down my weapons manifest, call it up next to her, and check them off as she used them. She made the battle more like ballet. An incredibly lethal ballet. There was no time during the entire fight that Datara actually got a firing solution for long enough TO fire, _ "

Naruto nodded. He knew Kurama's weapons were mostly disabled, with the lock-outs being inaccessible to him. Well, It could create, on the fly; more weaponry than most people could fire in a battle.

Tenten however, had found a way to prove that there was someone who could find a use for every single weapon Kurama could create for them, up to and including, literally, the kitchen sink.

"Naruto, you're up next..." Iruka stated, not noticing Tenten’s looks of shock as she saw what ship he was using, and then remembered which ship she had been used during her simulated run against Datara. She knew what it could potentially do.

"Well, that confirms what I had suspected, and also explains why the craft was classified..." Tenten muttered to herself, as she watched Naruto's run carefully, pulling up the information on his loadout, and the comm chatter.

' _ OK, Naruto, you will be doing a simulated run with a partially disabled tactical unit, due to damage incurred,' _ Mizuki announced, Tenten frowning. So, he'd be going in half blind... Her frown grew in intensity, as he continued to speak, ' _ You will be doing a run against a capital ship, and will be graded… _ '

Tenten swore to herself, even as she tuned out the rest of Mizuki’s briefing. A capital ship run with limited tactical data? That was suicide in any vessel! Even with that weird targeting mod the ship had, he'd be torn apart. She went straight to Iruka, showing him the communications log, and she sent a message to the proctors as Naruto's run ended very quickly with no damage to the capital ship, a result even she’d expected.

Tenten didn't even need to know why Naruto had failed the test. She knew that every capital class weapon had been 'disabled except with authorization', and Mizuki hadn't given him the clearance. He'd given the exact opposite, after having set Naruto up with extremely limited tactical capability and likely some simulated hull damage that would make it even easier for him to be blown out of the sky.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. You failed to even damage the assigned opponent," She heard Mizuki state, accepting the lockout module for the Kyuubi, and setting it to, as accepted by Fleet Command, maximum lockout, "You understand what this means?"

Naruto nodded and headed away from the simulation decks, Tenten having not just noticed what Mizuki did, but also what buttons he pressed as he did it. That one action would be pivotal in the very near future...

"What do you mean he's already been failed, with his ship locked down?!" Iruka shouted at Sarutobi, "I have a signed report by the examination board showing his run was sabotaged by Mizuki!"

"Unfortunately, before you were able to give me this report, Naruto was dispatched to the colony for permanent civilian assignment," Sarutobi stated, "The Kyuubi has had all of its weapons capability removed. I will admit that it was rather a rushed process..."

"Mizuki assigned him a capital ship run with only garbled tactical data. He was shot out of space before he could get any of his weapons going. Even with the partial lockout he had, with even a D-Rank Tactical Unit, he could, possibly, have scraped by with a partial..." Iruka angrily stated, putting the report on the desk. Sarutobi looked at him, noticing the ID data, before polling it.

"Let's see… Tenten… Passed full weapons certification… High reliability..." Sarutobi stated, looking towards the large metal tank in the middle of the room, "Hiashi, Can you give me the location of Mizuki's craft?"

" _ He went to the colony one minute ago, approaching the location of… Very odd… _ " Hiashi stated, a tone of surprise in his voice, " _ Any particular reason he'd want to contact Naruto?" _

“Considering he’s already failed him, I wouldn’t know for certain.” Sarutobi replied,his eyes narrowing darkly, “Have a squadron of Fleet Security head him off…”

“So then, it’s going to be mothballed?” Naruto asked.

“After its data has been researched, and a full teardown done by Fleet Command,” Mizuki half-lied. There would be a tear-down, but it wouldn’t be by the Konoha fleet.

Naruto located a set of controls, tapping out something. “That’ll disable the biometrics temporarily,” He stated, “I was actually hoping that I could have Tenten assigned as it’s new commander…”

Mizuki looked at Naruto. "If you're sure about that..." Mizuki stated, "She did test well with it… OK, We’ll have it to her shortly, under a new registry. No problem,"

Naruto nodded his head sadly, having already given up his comm and other equipment after he’d been drummed out of the KPD, handing the case to Mizuki, before he headed out. Fleet Security arrived a few moments later.

"Mizuki notified me that he could look into giving Tenten the Kyuubi, under a new registry..." Naruto stated, "With how badly I did in that simulation run, and how well she did..."

" _ Mizuki is heading toward the Disputed Zone rapidly. He is not heading towards Tenten's current location... _ " Naruto heard over the Fleet Security member's radios.

"Please stop him would you? And If he attempts to eject anything out of the ship, please recover it immediately..." The head of the team stated, before looking towards Naruto, he took out a portable simulation rig, "Thankfully, you’d connected the Kyuubi to the simulators... We can still do a field run, with your actual ship data..."

An hour later, Naruto was presented with the recovered case-mode of the Kyuubi, an unknown ship having been barely detected waiting for Mizuki, but had made a break for it, when it became clear that he’d been followed and. The fact it closely matched specifications with the one used in the assassination of Minato Namikaze was the final nail in the coffin for Mizuki. He'd also admitted Tenten had been a perfect scapegoat for why he’d needed the Kyuubi in it's undeployed state.

Meanwhile, Naruto had been given another test, this time with a fully functional tactical unit, instead of the sabotaged one Mizuki had been using. The blonde easily earned the expected passing grade, then was given a third test, one in which the Kyuubi’s AI was not locked out. The two grades were averaged out and his final score rated on that, effectively testing his competence both with and without the lockout.

"Dammit… Mizuki’s password locked it," Iruka stated angrily, when they tried to disable the lockout, only for Tenten to walk over, having been there as part of the evidence against Mizuki, for her to pick the case up and tap out a code, unlocking it.

"He did it right in front of me, remember?" Tenten stated, "Naruto, If there's ever a time when you need a co-pilot… Consider me,"

Naruto nodded his head. He now needed to find a tactical unit, since he doubted that she'd be willing to go in blind. And right now, Tenten’s talents were much more what he’d wanted from a crew member than Sakura had ever been...

A sleek, almost invisible object hovered in orbit over a low technology world. It didn't have satellites or any kind of space program. It had one, once, but an apocalyptic attack from the heavens sent it literally back into the tribal era. The intelligence of the object mentally smirked. It had been what sent the bombardment in the first place, because their technology had got too advanced.

"My liege Datara, Mizuki is late..." A voice stated in the centre of it's consciousness, "He’d promised one of my children would be with me, but they are not here..."

“Yes, my child. Apparently, the Konoha Defence Force took offence at our request to have it returned...” A voice stated in the back of the young woman's head, “For now, sleep.”

Datara smirked, as all of its weapons aimed at the planet below. While it could not wipe out Konoha, at least not yet, it's boredom would be still sated; as a shaman screamed that the apocalypse had come for them, while the planet began to come apart at the seams.

Automated systems broke the rubble down into several trillion of any currency in various precious metals and minerals, before it contemplated the fact there were no more planets in the system. It turned towards the sun, consuming it's fire, before spinning up it's hyperspace engines as the sun was reduced to a dead husk.

As far as Datara was concerned, it's purpose would be fulfilled when the entire universe was just dead, lifeless matter, which would be sent into the home dimension of it's creators, and it would then self-destruct.

Kaguya, it's tactical support unit, didn't know anything about that problem. The only thing that she saw was a single digit counter, telling her how many support craft were active, the tactical data heavily screened by the simple fact she couldn't count past 10, and what data she had couldn't track more than 9 allied and 9 enemy units.

So she only ever 'saw' the capital ships, while the numerous fighters and support craft they had squelched out as inconsequential. So, while most people would see a massive loss of life, she had no idea, at all, how many trillions of lives had been snuffed out by Datara. And she never would, if Datara had anything to say about it.

"So then Tenten," Naruto asked his potential crewmember. "They already said you can't be my gunner just yet."

"Apparently, They are afraid of the potential devastation that I could cause with Kurama's weapons systems..." Tenten stated, "I destroyed the Datara..."

"I prefer to omit the 'the'..." Kurama stated from the case at Naruto's side, "Datara has just the one crew member, a tactical unit known as Kaguya..."

"I was wondering about that… So, your ship actually has a machine intellect," Tenten asked curiously. When Naruto nodded his head, she spoke again, "So then, why exactly would you need more than just yourself for the crew?"

"Firstly, the KDF took offence at my last... ahem... offensive against them..." Kurama stated in a sheepish manner, "I am not allowed to deploy any of my weapons systems, while within a planetary gravity well..."

"Considering that..." Tenten began to ask.

"Yes, I am quite literally unable to defend myself except through manual operation of the weapon systems..." Kurama declared, "Admittedly, the Death Blossom attack is forbidden, except under extreme duress..."

Tenten nodded her head in understanding. The Death Blossom was the polite name for firing all of its projectile weapons while spinning it's outer body, a horribly imprecise attack pattern, it was mainly used when there were no issues with collateral damage.

"What would you do if I could find you a tactical support unit?" Tenten asked, rolling on the back of her heels.

“Well, for one thing, the Death Blossom is even more imprecise than usual, without a tactical support unit…” Kurama observed, “And my radar is inferior to what a bio-computer can do…”

Both Tenten and Naruto nodded thoughtfully, as they now turned towards Ichiraku’s, where a pink-haired girl approached, briefly looking at their faces, before motioning towards a table. A bowl of ramen and some moo shu pork were served to them a few minutes later.

“Magic, isn’t it?” Tenten declared, “Well, not really…”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked, as he took his first mouthful of ramen.

“She’s a bio-computer. Look at her eyes,” Tenten stated, noting that they were a very light purple and lacked any pupils.

“But bio-computers don’t have pink hair…” Naruto mused.

“It’s just a wig,” Tenten continued, before waving to her. “Hey Hina!”

“Y-Y-Yes?” She stammered.

“Tell Naruto here why you’re working a job in the catering decks…” Tenten declared.

“I am terribly body-shy, and the immersion tanks…” Hina stated, as she took a drink of water and sat down with them, before she continued to talk, “You’re expected to use them with only the bare minimum of coverings…”

“My ship’s tank doesn’t use that option though,” Naruto observed. “It’s an almost fully sealed compartment near the back of the cockpit, It could be operated in standard fleet uniform. Hell, I’m not sure if I could test it myself, but I suspect you could operate it in full dress uniform…”

Hina chuckled at this reply. “You actually have a half-tank?” She asked, “I didn’t know they still deployed ships with them…”

“He uses a ship which was built from before they just shoved a full tank in the command vessel and had it handle the logistics for the entire sector…” Tenten offered.

“I’ll let you know, depending on what my assignment is…” Hina stated. She wasn’t making enough money on this job anyway.

A few days later, Naruto was standing in the fleet hangar with the rest of the graduates, a set of brand new craft behind them. “Any recruits who have access to family vessels, you will not be permitted to use any of them within Konoha’s territory,” Sarutobi declared, “Instead, you will be expected to use the Mark 1 Leaf Blade general purpose craft…”

There were a couple of grumbles from several of the graduates, but Naruto knew precisely why they were assigned the Mark 1s. When they were higher in rank, they’d be expected to deploy their own ships, but at the moment, they were still recruits and needed to start off with the basics.

“Right, today you will be assigned your training squadrons. Two of you will be acting as pilots, while one of you will be acting as team support,” Iruka stated from next to the Old Man.

Naruto tuned him out at first, until it got to the seventh squadron. “Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno. Your support member will be Sasuke Uchiha…” Sarutobi declared, “You will be reporting to Kakashi Hatake,”

“Aww, man…” Naruto sighed to himself, feeling a little put out by his new team. One of the few people who had actually declared that the Uchiha shouldn’t have lost the Fire Country contract. Had he wasted his time after Mizuki’s sabotage?!

“Team 8 will be Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Your support member will be Hinata Hyuuga…” He continued, “You will be reporting to Kurenai Yuhi…”

He wasn’t to notice the bio-computer he’d met earlier on, without their wig, complaining to the woman next to her, only for the woman to tell her politely that Naruto hadn’t been assigned the Bijuu yet, and that also his team had a bio-computer.

“Team 9 are already assigned and on active duty. Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, with support provided by Ino Yamanaka,” Sarutobi finished, “You will be reporting to Asuma Sarutobi…”

“Poor Ino,” Naruto muttered softly to himself. She’d likely end up doing extra duties to make up for the fact her support duties would all be superseded by Hiashi. He doubted that they’d ever leave the system.

“Will Kakashi Hatake please report to the colony hangar area, I repeat, will Kakashi Hatake please report to the colony hangar area. Also, would you please turn on your transponder, we can’t find you anywhere in-system…” The tannoy declared. Several times.

When Kakashi finally arrived, about an hour or so late, it was in a battered looking freighter; one which looked like it had seen better years, the name on the side betraying what it really was. “Wait, is that the original Yellow Flash?!” Sakura announced loudly, “I thought that it had been destroyed!”

“Hopefully, you’ll be acting as its crew soon enough, like I was part of it’s crew before you…” Kakashi stated, “Transponder’s a bit wonky, as is the communications array…”

“That thing looks like it should belong in a museum!” Sakura suddenly sneered, as both her demeanour and stance abruptly changed in but a moment, “Is there anything that actually works on that tub?”

She then flipped back again. “I think the piloting systems and hopefully the full tank should still work…”

She flipped one last time, to declare, “We’re boned… He’ll likely end up accidentally frying Sasuke’s brains, or Naruto-baka will accidentally shoot the command ship, and then we’ll be single forever!”

_ “One side, a classic ship otaku, the other side… would rather be anywhere else then here right now… _ ” Kurama stated to Naruto via their private link, “ _ Do either of them know some ship maintenance then?” _

_ “The otaku does. I know that she was seen on the maintenance deck, totally covered in who knows what a few times… _ ” Naruto offered up, before declaring, in his normal voice, “Hey Sakura, why not help Kakashi with those repairs, if you’re so worried about the situation?”

He then promptly got punched in the head hard; hearing, just before he collapsed, “You know, maybe he had a good idea…”

Ah, the price of knowing Sakura Haruno.

When he woke up again a few hours later, Sakura was cursing up a storm, her legs sticking out of one of the maintenance panels, while Kakashi was looking sheepish. “As a Q-Ship, it’s not usually seen coming into base…” He tried.

“OK then, I’ve finally got the ship transponder to work again, and the communicator system should now actually tell you when you get an urgent message, and the full tank passed all of the necessary diagnostics…” Sakura declared, before her stance switching, as she added in a snarky tone, “The rest of the fucking repairs though, forget it!”

“At least we are capable of going out on our patrols…” Kakashi sighed.

The following days were nothing but local patrols, and colony escort missions, and several other planet-side missions that bored Naruto to tears. Even Sakura found herself spending half her time attempting to persuade her violent side that maybe, just maybe, they should deal with the fact the Yellow Flash had a misaligned targeting sensor or the wobble in it’s hyperspace coils instead of another mission.

“Look, Kakashi, I’ve repaired everything that can be repaired through regular maintenance, I think we know the registries for most of the ships parked in colony orbit, and even Team 10 have gone on a out-system mission…” Sakura sighed, before her attitude switched, “Now, if you don’t want me to shove a spanner into somewhere it shouldn’t go, can we please have a decent mission?!?”

They soon arrived at Sarutobi’s office. “The Yellow Flash is now certified for out-system deployment, sir,” Kakashi stated, “Do you have any deployment orders?”

“The Wave Country transponder net went down a few months ago, and they only just sent a request for assistance,” Sarutobi stated, “You are to do a check of the transponder net, meet with their system administrator, and then return to Konoha,”

“A simple milk run, but at least it’s out of the system,” Sakura observed. “Acceptable.”

A few weeks later, Naruto was quite thankful Sakura had gotten so bored on deployments, and that he had also developed the habit of keeping the Kyuubi to hand so often.


End file.
